NHS care of dying patients funding announced

The Department of Health (DoH) is investing one million pounds to improve environments for dying people and bereaved relatives.

Led by the King’s Fund, the initiative will include work in 19 NHS Trusts and one prison to improve patient, family and staff facilities.

This will include new palliative care beds, better facilties for families and visitors, dedicated bereavement suites and refurbished mortuary viewing facilties, the DoH says.

It comes after a successful a pilot scheme across eight sites and is the latest phase of the King’s Fund’s Enhancing the Healing Environment programme.

Care services minister Ivan Lewis said: “How we care for the dying ? is a measure of society as a whole and in particular it is a litmus test for health and social care services.”

He added that a national End of Life Care Strategy for adults would be developed, details of which will be published later this year.

In other NHS news, the Primary Care 2008 conference will take place on May 21st in Birmingham.